After taking all sheet-rock down I noticed that all walls (cement block) siting under ground are moist. Some of them even ate through footers. After farther look at the house I found out that their is no insulation on the outside of the cement blocks that are under ground. On the blueprint of my basement I marked in red most affected areas or rather corners. This is walkout basement. My question is, should I try to divert water from the house by insulation/wrap and drain on an outside or French drainage on the inside? Also the whole house is on the slope and red circles are on the side that is deeper under ground. Thank you for all help.
Best Answer
Block walls will always leak if there is not enough drainage from outside the home. Since you have a walk out basement you will have a much easier time of fixing your problem. First you would want to try a shallow French drain around the premises, dropping down to the lower level and making sure you connect to any gravel at the lower corners of the home and continue down the hill a few feet and have the pipe exit at ground level, this will take care of runoff from the high side and help Chanel any slab back pressure down the hill. I have had 2 daylight basement’s or walk outs both that required a lot of work down stairs because of water damage. I installed a 4’ deep drain on the first home across the front and down the sides it was dry for 13 years when we upgraded, the second was an older home with 2 sides below grade and damage close to the below grade corner, this home I installed a 3’ deep Drain and it did the job. I did add some weep holes next to the below grade garage outside in the retaining wall (as I later enclosed this and opened the basement to make a huge man cave) that area never had problems after ~8 years , my daughter lives there and it has been a few years since I moved ~+8 and she has not asked for any help so it is probably still dry. But that’s what I would do . Use heavy plastic sheeting from the siding under the pipe and gravel and then back up a foot or 2 this keeps the water contained and really helps. I have done this on 2 of my homes and over a dozen when I worked for my dad’s construction company.